I hope you know this will go down on your permanent record

[venta]

So, the executive summary of the extended waffle about New Year resolutions for this year got boiled down to:

So, for 2014: evaluate life. Work out how to fit things in to it. Learn new stuff.

I figure it's time for the first quarterly report :)

Well, on the plus side the new job is making sure that the 'learn new stuff' part is going on apace. In the past three months I have had to learn some amount of: Python, Javascript, Apache configuration, MySQL, Django and Angular - all of which were completely new. (Top tip: if you come from a C background and are trying to learn Python, do not suddenly start trying to write JS. It will play merry hell with your ability to construct syntactically correct if statements.) Unfortunately, my learning is of necessity more reactive than it is thorough or planned. I have not followed through with the idea of keeping a "continuing personal development" record up to date. (Yes, I know it sounds wanky, but I really don't want ever to have to set on and write a CV from scratch after >5 years again.)

Fortunately I appear to have got over bursting into renditions of Apache and Django whenever their respective technologies are mentioned, which is probably a relief to everyone.

Working out how to fit things in is not, actually, going so well. Much as I didn't enjoy sitting on a train for 50 minutes each way every day, I used to get quite a lot done. A shorter commute on the tube has actually left me feeling like I have less time in the day. I'm also working a lot harder, which leaves me feeling much less inclined to do anything other than eat dinner and go flop when I have a spare evening.

However, the spur of the bi-weekly Writers' Triangle means that I eventually squeeze a bit of writing in somewhere, even if it doesn't end up coming out at the highest quality.

I signed up to an 8-week yoga course at the begining of March. Instead of bodding along to a class and trying to pick it up as I go along, this is a beginners' course which is taught from scratch. Everyone else seems to have a history of other kinds of yoga, or of gymnastics, making me one of the unbendy class dunces. Other than than, I am enjoying it. Again, having a fixed-time commitment (which I've already paid for!) is causing it to happen in the face of time pressure. When the course comes to an end I should probably try and find another class to join; unfortunately there don't seem to be a lot of them about at times and locations which are feasible. On the other exercise front, running isn't happening at all at present. I have a vague hope that lighter evenings will make it a bit more feasible post-work.

I am trying to get into the habit of writing myself achievable to-do lists for weekends when I am at home. A finite collection of things that should be done seems somehow a lot less daunting than the opportunity to pick the same number of things from a semi-infinite list.

Evaluating life in a more general sense seems completely insurmountable at the moment. The first three months of 2014 have whizzed by with me barely noticing. There hasn't been time to plan or evaluate properly. Which is kind of the point... things like that don't happen unless I make them happen, by making time for them.

So in summary, I think, could try harder :)

Comments

[sammason.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you're achieving a lot! I like the idea of short, feasible to-do lists. In fact, I do those too after watching my father struggle for year after year with what was indeed a semi-infinite list. He even used to keep 3 levels of list - *, ** and *** - but still failed to do most of what was on any of them. A form of self-abuse! Recently as you know, I've been writing ta-da lists instead. If you did that it would be quite long already this year.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Possibly a useful perspective, thank you! I don't tend to think of "doing my job" as an achievement, because jobs are just one of those things you have to do.

One of the things on this weekend's to-do list was to sew up a split seam in a second-hand jacket I bought recently. I'm quite a poor hand sew-er, so inclined to put it off. But it was the only thing left on the list, so I got on with it. Actually, it didn't take that long in the event. Hurrah for to-do lists.

[sammason.livejournal.com]

Ta da! venta is a grafter who got herself a job, went to work and did that job, earning her living and providing a service for other people.

Tell you what, I've had to learn to cry 'Ta da!' for things I used to take for granted. Things like going to work. On bad days, things like cutting my toenails or making myself a cup of tea. My OH has her own equivalents. She may not be milking 60 cows twice a day any more, but she did that, paid for her son's schooling and now look at him go in the City! Every Mother's Day when his posh-choc delivery arrives, she knows that she's earned it.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

bursting into renditions of Apache and Django whenever their respective technologies are mentioned

A clear advantage that nginx and Joomla have is that they don't provoke this sort of behaviour. ;-)